Meditation is a microcosm, a model, a mirror. The skills we practice when we sit are transferable to the rest of our lives.

The key to cultivating confidence in ourselves is understanding our right to make the truth our own.

We often get caught up in our own reactions and forget the vulnerability of the person in front of us.

One of the primary conditions for suffering is denial. Shutting our mind to pain, whether in ourselves or others, only ensures that it will continue. We must have the strength to face it without turning away. By opening to the pain we see around us with wisdom and compassion, we start to experience the intimate connection of our relationship with all beings.

I prefer to think of faith, as Coleridge says of poetry, not as the taking up of belief but as "the willing suspension of disbelief". . . a willingness to be open, to explore, to investigate.

Faith is not a commodity we either have or don't have-it is an inner quality that unfolds as we learn to trust our own deepest experience.

Let the power of intention lead the way.